ISSTH – Book 7 – Chapter 1088

In the moment that Meng Hao’s face flickered, the same reaction could be seen on the faces of Fan Dong’er and her group of cultivators, as well as Bei Yu and the Demonic cultivators who had been roiling with killing intent.

Only the burly body cultivator’s expression was the same as ever, as if he hadn’t even noticed anything. Everyone else, on the other hand, could sense reactions from things within their bags of holding.

Furthermore, a shining red sealing mark appeared on the hands of all nine of them, marks that seemed to indicate that they possessed certain qualifications.

“Dammit!!” Fan Dong’er had an extremely unsightly look on her face, as did all the others. The two Demonic cultivators were no longer even thinking about Meng Hao. They stopped in place and used every possible method available to brace themselves for what was about to come.

Obviously… Meng Hao was not the only other person to have brought others with him into the Windswept Realm!

Meng Hao’s eyes flickered and he backed up a few steps. He sent some divine will into his bag of holding and quickly sealed the Demonic cultivators who the parrot and meat jelly had been training to sing.

However, despite being sealed, when the second clap of thunder rang out, the Demonic cultivators coughed up more blood, and their bodies withered. Obviously, the sealing did no good. Thankfully, the parrot and meat jelly were not affected at all.

Meng Hao frowned as the third clap of thunder rang out. This time, he unleashed the Life Death Hexing!

RUUUUUUMMMMBLLLLE!

In the blink of an eye, the Demonic cultivators inside of his bag of holding were protected by the Hexing magic. Although their faces went pale, they were unaffected, and were not in danger of being wiped out.

However… Chu Yuyan and Su Yan had nowhere to flee to. The two women coughed up blood, especially Chu Yuyan, who was already injured. Despite being more than half recovered, she was now on the verge of being exterminated by the thunder. Her injuries were aggravated, and the Life Death Hexing could not be used on her or Su Yan. After all, if Meng Hao used it, and failed… they would be killed, and he would be powerless to do anything about it!

Su Yan wouldn’t be too big a loss, and Meng Hao didn’t really care much about her, anyway. However, he couldn’t simply risk Chu Yuyan in that way.

Everyone else had reactions to Meng Hao. Fan Dong’er’s face was pale white as she slapped her bag of holding. Two people flew out, both of them young men who wore looks of surprise and shock on their faces.

As for the three cultivators behind Fan Dong’er, they all slapped their bags of holding; in total, they had brought eight people with them, all of them disciples of the Nine Seas God World!

It was the same with Bei Yu, from whose bag of holding flew two old women. Both were Demonic cultivators, with cultivation bases in the Ancient Realm, with five extinguished Soul Lamps each.

As for the other two Demonic cultivators, five people emerged to stand next to them.

At a single glance, you could see that the current group vastly exceeded the limit of nine. However, there was one aspect which was shared by all of the newcomers. None of their cultivation bases… exceeded five extinguished Soul Lamps!

Perhaps their true cultivation bases were higher than that, but at the moment, they had suppressed themselves down to the Ancient Realm with five extinguished Soul Lamps. That made it such that a single peal of thunder was strong enough to wipe them out!

“What’s going on!? The natural laws here are different than last time! Before, we could always bring extra people, as long as they had five extinguished Soul Lamps or fewer!!”

“As long as we didn’t bring too many, the Windswept Realm would never cause any interference. Why are things different this time!?”

As everyone cried out in alarm, Meng Hao’s eyes glittered. He had never imagined that virtually everyone would try to bring more people into the Windswept Realm. Granny Nine and the others hadn’t mentioned anything about the subject, nor had they provided any warnings. After a moment of thought, Meng Hao realized he had nothing to complain about.

“I’m an outsider to the Nine Seas God World,” he thought, “and everything that has happened has been for the sake of mutual gain. They need my Echelon status, and I… need that status to get more powerful.

“To prevent me from bringing a bunch of my own clan members in here, they didn’t mention the subject, which I suppose is fair play.” As he backed up, he frowned. Although he could ignore the actions of the Nine Seas God World, he was getting very nervous because of the threat to Chu Yuyan.

Meng Hao’s eyes flickered as he looked at the mark on the back of his hand, and he instantly understood the situation.

“Nine is the limit… well in that case… as long as we don’t exceed the number of people allowed into the Ninth Nation, then there shouldn’t be any problem.” Suddenly, another peal of thunder rang out, and blood sprayed from the mouths of everyone who didn’t possess a mark. At the same time, Meng Hao flashed across the altar toward one of the Demonic cultivators with a mark on his hand, one of the ones who had been on the verge of attacking him earlier.

“That mark is the crux of things! If you have that mark, you’re qualified to be here!” Killing intent swirling, he shot forward as fast as lightning. With the wave of a hand, rumbling filled Heaven and Earth, and chains of mountains descended, sweeping across everything.

The ten thousand cultivators who were prostrated in worship surrounding the altar all remained there with heads bowed, with the exception of Jian Daozi and the other old men. Everyone else didn’t even dare to move.

Jian Daozi stood there watching silently. However, deep within his eyes could be seen a flicker of derision. As for the other old men, they stood in place without saying a word.

Similar scenes played out in the other eight nations. Apparently, virtually all of the visitors from the Mountain and Sea Realm had brought people to tag along.

However, the natural laws of the Windswept Realm had changed, causing widespread shock. Nobody was prepared for the sudden onslaught of thunder. The pressure intensified, and the people who had been brought along felt grave senses of crisis filling them. They knew that this force, intent on wiping them away, would not stop.

Chaotic fighting would soon erupt as everyone realized that each Sea could only have a maximum of nine people in the Windswept Realm!

Without some extraordinary exception, the limit could not be exceeded by even one!

Apparently the Third Sea contained an exception. Xue’er had apparently used some unknown technique to ensure that she would be permitted to stay.

Though they had just arrived, the cultivators of the Mountain and Sea Realm began to fight each other. Bitter battles erupted, and the peals of thunder continued to echo out.

“Since this trifling Windswept Realm wants to eradicate me, I’ll just leave!” cried an enraged old man on the altar in the desert of the Ninth Nation. He was bursting with the power of five extinguished Soul Lamps as he flew up into the air to leave the altar.

As he rose up into the air, others on the altar similarly took to flight. However, as soon as the old man left the altar, a huge bolt of lightning struck down from up above.

The lightning bolt was not complete, and yet it contained natural law and Essence. It moved with incredible speed that made it impossible to evade. It slammed into the old man, and a boom rang out. Before the man could even scream, he was completely wiped out in body and soul, transformed into nothing more than ash.

The scene caused everyone else to gasp, and the cultivators who had just flown into the air suddenly stopped in place, expressions of astonishment covering their faces.

Meng Hao’s eyes flickered, and he smiled slightly.

“I like this place,” he said, extending his right hand and causing the chains of mountains to rumble. Blood Demon heads materialized as he began to fight. Booms rang out, and he turned into a huge golden roc. With a flash, he was slashing the Demonic cultivator’s head, after which he turned and unleashed the Life-Extermination Fist on one of the other two howling Demonic cultivators who had leaped to attack him.

The fist struck nothing but air, and yet blood sprayed from their mouths, and booms rang out. One of them exploded into pieces, and the other was sent tumbling off of the altar, after which a bolt of lightning fell and exterminated him.

Simultaneously, a stream of red qi rose up from the dead Demonic cultivator. Eyes glittering, Meng Hao reached out and grabbed it, then sent it into this bag of holding, toward the back of Chu Yuyan’s hand. It turned into a sealing mark, which instantly put her out of danger. She now had the qualifications to be in this place. He quickly sent her a large quantity of medicinal pills to help her recover.

“Meng Hao, what are you doing!?!?” cried Fan Dong’er. The altar was instantly thrown into chaos. The fact that Meng Hao had instantly resorted to violent fighting caused the older cultivators and Demonic cultivators to guess about the natural laws of the Windswept Realm, and they also began to attack.

“Can’t you see?!” Meng Hao said. “Only nine people are allowed to be here! If we don’t kill them… then they’ll kill us! It doesn’t matter which of us dies… as long as only nine remain alive, everything will be fine!

“Even if you don’t attack… those stowaways will continue to grow weaker from the thunder! Therefore… their only option is to kill us and take our places!” Meng Hao waved his hand, causing his Divine Flame Immortal meridian to erupt with power. Flames rolled back and forth, a mass of destruction.

In response to Meng Hao’s words, the two young men behind Fan Dong’er suddenly launched attacks, not against Fan Dong’er, but rather, against the other three cultivators who had arrived in the Windswept Realm by the correct method.

Booms echoed out. Fan Dong’er was helpless to stop anything that was happening. Both the Demonic cultivators and ordinary cultivators devolved into even more chaotic fighting. Bei Yu looked extremely nervous as the two old women next to her looked around angrily and then began to levy vicious attacks in all directions.

Of course… the stowaways were the most nervous of all. As the thunder continued to boom, they received continuous injuries. Their current situation was like a sword hanging over their heads!

They could see the red marks on the hands of Meng Hao and the others, and knew that they represented the qualifications to be in this place, to be immune to the peals of thunder. If they didn’t quickly earn themselves qualifications, they would die without a doubt!

Bloodcurdling screams rang out constantly, and fierce fighting raged. As more people died, more chances were presented to survive. Under such pressure of life or death, it was a matter of this isn’t about you dying, it’s about me living!

“Don’t blame me! I don’t want to do this, but… I have to keep living!” The Demonic cultivator who had brought up the idea of all the local cultivators ending their own lives, ended up dying at the hands of one of the other Demonic cultivators that he had brought along. He could only watch helplessly as he heard similarly cold words spoken to him, and then saw the red mark fade from his hand.

“DIE!!” The cultivators brought by Fan Dong’er were also killed by fellow sect members. They died, eyes wide with regret.

Miserable screams rang out constantly as the number of people on the altar slowly grew smaller and smaller. At the same time, the booms of thunder grew more intense and more frequent!

Life Death Hexing!! I turned the problem over in my mind so many times and still missed it. They were Karmically Hexed before, with Life and Death hexing their lives and deaths belong to MH, not some trifling Windswept Thunder and lightning, heck their lives and deaths don’t even belong to them… I love this story.

well, the truth is it is still a hell of a plot device haha. using the hex to bypass the rules and give immunity to 30 folks was too easy! I must say I don’t accept it completely: even if he binds the karma and life of those people to himself, it’s not like their presence was erased. the “banning system” of this windswept realm must be really dumb. but whatever, there is a tiny bit of logic, so we can overlook this. about the parrot and jelly, it was exactly as I commented last chapter. either because they are not actual cultivators, or because they are tricky as f***, they were unharmed. what bothered me was the explanation why he didn’t hex Su Yan. like it was mentioned, he does not even care about her, so why did he care in the end? hexing her would be much more convenient: not only he would not have to fight for one more spot, she would be under his control forever. even if she died, who cares? he has so many legendary daoist magics that even he can’t remember all of them anyways. obviously, she is being prepared for some plot twist later on the story, but the author could make it less obvious…

I agree Su Yan is probably being preserved for plot. If he truly didn’t care about her and wanted her magic he could have just soul searched. With her being in the Ancient Realm he would need her to adjust her cultivation base so she doesn’t explode and she hasn’t exactly been cooperative… The Seafood band doesn’t matter, he’s stronger than them anyway and they’re basically his property. (Haowie and the Blowfish for band name!!)

MH wants her Daoist magics but throughout the story he’s stopped using the ones that are no longer effective (flying sword array, fire dragon/python magic, blood finger/palm/world). Her cultivation base isn’t that profound, by the time she gives up the goods he probably won’t need her magic anymore so there must be some other reason to keep her alive.

the risk of exploding is basically only if the other person is stronger than him. when he first used this hex in those fang clan cultivators, they were much stronger than him, that’s why they had to adjust their cultivation before the hexing. but Howie is already far stronger than Su Yan. she has only 2 extinguished soul lamps? with his current cultivation of Immortal Emperor, he is stronger than a 5 lamps ancient realm, so it doesn’t make sense that he is so afraid of hexing her. Ah! and don’t forget the hexing power-up after the paragon blood. and like you said: by the time she gives up the goods (what I think will not even happen), it will not even be useful anymore. RIP blood mastiff.

Well, you are right in a certain way, Quasi-Dao realm elders are called Paragons, in that case it really fits, because Imperial Lord is above that “Paragon”, but it is also above Dao realm. Saying that in such sequence while not mentioning Dao realm seems a little off for me. But nevertheless, there is no flaw in this assumption. Lets wait if DB can dig out some more info.

I think they are different things. the Imperial Lord mentioned first is the supreme existence that rules all the nine mountains realm, even above the lords of each mountain. he is the top ruler of the realm, a title (like king, emperor, etc.). the “Imperial Lord” mentioned recently is a level of cultivation that is unrelated to the title mentioned before. so, in my opinion, despite having the same name, they are two separate things. maybe the author forgot he had already used the term before or he used different words that are translated the same way, I don’t know… let’s wait for Patriarch Deathblade to enlighten us regarding the Dao.

Hmm… So what’s different this time? It seems like the old men from the Windswept Realm knew about this before hand, which makes it seem like they might be rebelling or at least in cahoots with whoever/whatever is causing this to happen.
Thanks for the chapter!

I was thinking the same thing. Jian Daozi seems to be the oldest with the highest cultivation base (everyone else respects him and power is respect in the cultivation world) plus he has derisive smiles and schemes even towards those he’s supposed to be venerating. On top of that nobody from the Paragon Immortal Realm seems to have known about the nine person limit. He didn’t even have to get his hands dirty to kill 9 immortals, all he had to do was keep his mouth shut and let them kill themselves (along with the recently adjusted natural law)

yeah, there were some clear clues pointing that there will be some sort of rebellion. all the explanations about how this realm was heavily suppressed to the point of having no choice but worship the Immortals make it obvious that there will be people really unhappy about the situation. and the “derisive smile” was a big, shining red alert screaming that there is something fishy going on…

And there is also another question I have regarding this kind of issue. I thought you cant put people in the bag of holding, i think it was said that no living things could be stashed there. Actually this was bugging me a really long time now, perhaps I missed somewhere the answer? Because I remember in the arc that he was with golden crow tribe and they were going that long way from north to south part of western desert, Meng Hao didnt put the tribe members into his bag of holding nor to his blood mask.

I’m pretty sure it has never said that in ISSTH. That rule is common in other author’s universe, but in ISSTH you can obviously store people in holding items. As for the Golden Crow Tribe, it never specifically explains that situation, but I can think of at least for or five ways to explain why neither Meng Hao nor any of the other tribes put people into holding items. I suspect this is something that was explained in one of his previous two novels (there are almost 4000 chapters between them, so it’s impossible to say without reading them). I’ll continue to look into this and report any details I find.

Chapter 135: “And as for Chu Yuyan, he had long since deposited her into the bag of the Cosmos. It was not a bag of holding, after all, and its insides were an entire world. It was capable of temporarily holding a living person inside.”

So yes, it can stash living things. About the Golden Tribe, I thought about the same problem at the time. If I’m not mistaken, there was some explanation about having mortals among the tribe members. But honestly,the real reason why he didn’t stash the tribe members and flew all the way is because it would make things too easy and there would be not an arch of the migration from the west.

Wasn’t Ji 19 host to the thunder/lightning body? Seems to me like this origin essence lightning could be a convenient power up if he was used. Similarly, what happens to the other cultivators in the blood mask? Are they affected?

Also, the meat Jelly and parrot could also try concealing their loyal seafood like back when MH was refining the paragon blood.

Wow.. Good point. Lord Third likes to eat lightning. We’ve seen his interactions with the demon granny, he was obviously a highly powerful lightning cultivator. Could Third be used to help protect Su Yan or others from this trifling lower realm lightning tribulation?

the whole eat lightning thing was only useful when Howie had to face the tribulations, so I’m not sure if it will even be mentioned again. also, the blood mask… sigh. another one of the thousands of treasures that were simply forgotten. the fact that there are a Ji and a Li patriarchs inside that mask has been completely disregarded for more than 400 chapters, I don’t think they are useful now that Howie is absurdly stronger than both. also, about 200 years have passed since they were thrown in the mask, are they even alive now?

Now my question: since Meng Hao is the first echelon member to grace 9th mountain since the first Fang patriarch, why has 9th mountain even sent anyone into the Windswept Realm in the past to learn about the 5 lamp rule? I would have assumed that they weren’t even qualified to go in without an echelon.

One of the other Mountains sent in their Echelon candidate at that time. The 9th mountain and sea will have sent in candidates every time the rift to the Windswept realm was opened, even if they didn’t have an echelon member among them.

Also they are among the ones specifically trained to open the rift so they know the rules… even if they weren’t being enforced strictly.

Thanks for the chapter Deathblade, anonpuffs, Madam Deathblade, GNE, Courtrecords, Shu, JerryDaBaws, and Baby Deathblade! I did not expect them all to bring that many people lol. Also, the natives are real shady.